Integrating Eastern Europe’s Regional Gas Markets discussion at the EBRD 2017 Annual Meeting and Business Forum

Integrating Eastern Europe’s Regional Gas Markets discussion at the EBRD 2017 Annual Meeting and Business Forum

Gas markets underline the importance of integration

LONDON, 26-Apr-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — Integration is one of the qualities of a successful modern economy as defined by the EBRD in its new transition concept.  But why is it better to be integrated than closed off?

The gas market is one of the most obvious examples of what integration can really mean for economies and by extension for entire countries’ direction of travel.

Gas supplies are extremely dependent on costly infrastructure, delivered either via expensive pipelines or, in the case of LNG, via even more expensive gas liquefaction and regasification plants (and then also via pipelines).

Only working across borders can ensure that a country avoids being dependent on a single supplier of gas. Having access to a regional gas market means access to various suppliers who are competing to provide the best price. It also means better security of supply.

This panel will start with EBRD Managing Director for Energy and Natural Resources, Nandita Parshad, addressing the question of why Eastern European gas markets are so crucial to the whole European energy market.

Petru Ion Vaduva, CEO of Transgaz, will introduce the cross-regional pipeline BRUA for which agreements were signed last year, which will cross Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.

In his own words, “BRUA will play a strategic role in increasing north-south physical flows, and will create a transit route for future gas reserves from the Black Sea.”

Milosz Momot from a recently launched EC regional policy initiative for Central and Eastern European gas markets, CESEC, will explain how gas infrastructure (“hardware”) as well as market rules, contractual agreements and interconnector rules, collectively known as “software”, contribute to gas markets development.

John Roberts from the Atlantic Council will provide a global view of the European markets context. He says: “European production is falling – we need to think about where our gas will come from in future and whether the infrastructure is sufficient in light of this. European initiatives are going in the right direction, but arguably not doing enough, and projects that are agreed aren’t (all) getting implemented.”

Join us at the EBRD’s 2017 Annual Meeting and Business Forum to discuss the Eastern Europe and the integration of its regional gas markets.

SOURCE: EBRD

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